Exercise of the Week: Worry Once and Do It Well

This week's exercise was inspired by an article I read yesterday in the Jobs section of the NY Times. Business writer Phyllis Korki speaks with clinical psychologist Margaret Wehrenberg, author of The Anxious Brain, about how to quell financial anxiety. (Click here to read the full piece.) Wehrenberg's advice to "worry once and do it well" has all sorts of applications to late blooming. Here's a brief snippet of the conversation:

PK: What...can you do to tame anxiety?

MW: If you're going to fret, be systematic about it and get it over with. If you're concerned about your finances, for example, meet with a financial planner and decide what steps to take to protect assets the best you can. If you're worried about losing a job, update your resume and lay all the other initial groundwork for a job search. Then focus on the job you still have; that is something you can control, as opposed to some horrific future scenario that may never occur.... Say to yourself, "Stop. I already worried," then pull yourself back to your work.

So if you're anxious about something this week, at a minimum make a list of practical steps you can take to alleviate the situation. Then, time and energy permitting, start to address them one by one. Easier said than done perhaps, but great advice.

Special Note: Congratulations to Barbara Techel (who frequently comments on this blog). Her book Frankie, the Walk 'N Roll Dog was just named a winner in the Picture Book Non-Fiction softcover category for USA Book News, National Best Book Awards 2008.